The Tribune Online, 62

Brother Pumpkinhead...an old Alabama Brother

First of all, I personally apologize to Linda Kenney Miller, the author of the excellent book featured below...but, I just couldn't let her story go without some justice to her brother's memory. It appears that Dr. John A. Kenney was celebrated on one of Tom Joyner's Morning Shows, but when asked about Dr. Kenney, Tom reflected that he personally knew Linda's brother being that they attended Tuskegee Institute with world-renowned vocalist, Lionel Richie. Her brother is deceased, but Tom took the liberty to joke about the nickname they used to call him, which then turned into a big joke for the remaining hour.

Now, despite Linda's book getting national notoriety, about her granddad being Booker T. Washington's personal physician, who is the founder of Tuskegee Institute, Pumpkinhead nor his staff ever sought to bring Linda on to promote her book...not even so much as a telephone interview...but still found it appropriate to joke about her deceased brother.

Pumpkinhead, I think this sister should be accorded a personal apology on air as well as an invite to discuss her granddad's legacy...don't you?  I told Linda, that I knew Al Joyner personally, Tom's brother, when we both resided in Mobile. This was during the eighties and I was just starting my venture in the publishing business. One of the first persons I interviewed, was AL. He was at the time one of a very few black men or women to own a McDonald's franchise, and in the predominantly black hamlet just outside of Mobile, called Prichard on Wilson Avenue. Al struck me as a very smart and industrious guy, one of the first owners of a McDonald's franchise to have a drive-thru window in Alabama. As I eventually moved on, so did Al, buying more McDonald's franchises in the Birmingham area.

My point is, how would Pumpkinhead feel if I used an opportunity to crack wise on his brother if he were dead? Being an old Alabama boy...I think you see where I'm coming from.  "Yobro"

What if we called him...just another Negro Bobble Head?

In a recent blog from Cynthia Tucker of the "AJC" she states "Calling Herman Cain a 'minstrel' is out of bounds." Being called a "minstrel" would be comparable to calling any black man in America, a "foot-shuffling, head-scratching, boot-licking lackey" so I suggest we tone down the rhetoric by asking what if the black community simply called him another "Negro Bobble Head" who feels in his heart and soul, out of sheer ignorance or stupidity that his existence has been accepted by the establishment of white America?

This is what I interpret whenever I hear or see one these "clowns" advocating this T-Party junket, in thinking that "taking our country back" really includes the likes of them. You are no more than "fools"!! Oh, pardon my less than kinder and more gentle sensitivity...you simple-minded Negroes...that's from Clarence Thomas, Allen West, and Herman Cain extending to any other black bobble head in their fog of self-righteousness.     

Constitutional Justice in the Roanoke Valley

As a nationally certified minority owned business, I sought to become a "workforce development partner" with the Soutwestern Virginia Workforce Development Board...which currently has no "minority owned businesses" on its board. So far I have been denied acceptance without any reasonable explanation. The board has even seen fit to hire the law firm of Congressman Goodlatte's wife, Maryellen Goodlatte, to block any face-to-face with the Board's Executive Committee to see how this could be ironed out.  This would preclude my having to pursue federal litigation with the Department of Labor, of which I have sent the file of transactions in my access to this board.

I have an excellent track record with the BBB, a licensed and certified professional health care worker for over ten years in the state of Virginia, have brought on other healthcare workers from as far away as Canada, and sought to increase the number of consultants right here in Roanoke in face of the high unemployment numbers...but being blocked by this Board in doing so?

I shared with Attorney Maryellen Goodlatte, that I saw a conflict of interest in her taking this case, being that Congressman Bob Goodlatte assisted me in establishing my business in Roanoke in 2006, and would she consider removing herself and law firm from this matter? She declined to do so.

I have since sent my concerns to Congressman Bob Goodlatte's office in hopes that we can resolve this matter for the benefit of those seeking employment, especially the minorities who have been disproportionately impacted within the Congressman's district... still awaiting his reply. 

Here's the irony in this pursuit of justice in the Roanoke Valley. While listening to the radio one day last week, there came on this public service notice voiced by an apparently, young, up and coming black female attorney by the name of Sherita Simpson, of the Gentry/Rakes law firm, one of the largest in the Valley. Ms Simpson's entry was on the subject of justice as espoused by Dr. Martin L. King, Jr stating in so many words...injustice for one is an injustice for all.

Inspired by Ms Simpson's call for justice, I decided to give her a call to see if she would be interested in taking on what might be considered a federal discrimination suit with the Department of Labor, against the federally subsidized SW Virginia Workforce Development Board?  I "e-mailed" her some background information, while leaving a telephone message as to the legal representative for the "Board."

Ms Simpson, initially returned my phone call and said she was pleased that I sought her in this legal pursuit, and she would get back to me. A day later, I get an e-mail from her, saying that being her law firm's partners are friends of and have done business with the Congressman and his wife, she could not take my case...and that she was sorry. I responded, is that the only reason for the conflict? Apparently, it was, for she never responded to my asking for a referral for an attorney without this conflict.

I even stated that I don't blame her in what might be an interrupted attempt in blacks seeking justice in white America's court rooms, for my being from Alabama, there is a track record of justice not provided by jurists being friends with, members of, relatives associated to some cliques as despicable as the KKK. As a matter of fact, the last known lynching of a black man in America by the KKK, took place in my hometown of Mobile, within a block of where I resided, around the time I was a litigant in a federal case against IBM. Evidently, the KKK thought itself so bold that they could hang a "nigger" and get away with it based on their percieved notion of justice for black folks.             

My Intro to Rio

As I have stated many times before, I'm from Mobile, AL, the home of Mardi Gras in America, which has become a secondary stage for the event, being overtaken by New Orleans with its international reputation for the celebration... http://www.kreweofzulu.com.

Nevertheless, the motherland for this international festival is of course, Rio de Janeiro http://www.rio-carnival.net, which brings me to my topic. It was approximately ten years ago that I met this lovely young lady from Rio, who spoke not only Portuguese, the primary language of Brazil, but fluent English of which made me feel handicapped, even though a college graduate and publisher, for I was just "mono-lingual" as most Americans are...and even took some sort of self-absorbing pride in being an educated American... pride goeth before the fall. She however, didn't look down upon me with this "handicap" and decided to translate my publication into Portuguese, in order that I could distribute it to the largest country on the South American continent.

When introducing the publication to a distributor in Rio, we established an agreement, being that I wanted to learn more about the country, the distributor sent me a video of the people and the culture, in exchange  for copies of "Seven Golden Gifts"...an agreement that I have never regretted.  I view this DVD every year during the season of "Carnival"  to absorb a "real education" of a true "southern" neighbor. Copies of the little publication can still be ordered in English at http://infobuck.com/catalog.html and for only one dollar.